EA announced the "big announcement" they've been talking about. It is called EA Sports Premium Pass and will include such things as online leagues, specialized message boards, career pages, etc. if you sign up. It will ask you for a credit card number, but you will not be charged since Dodge is picking up the bill.

EA is hoping this will cut out a lot of the people that cut their connection in order to not have a loss last year, then went and created a new EA Sports Nation user. This service will be available on both the PS2 and Xbox versions.

No word yet on if this Pass will extend to other EA Sports games coming up or if it will ever cost a thing in order to use. You can check out the fulll Press Release for all the info because it is rather long with a lot of features in it.

EA wants your money BAD. I can't blame them, as they are a business. As a shareholder (is that a bannable offense?) I am all for it. As a gamer I don't like the idea one bit, but this in the internet age many expect everything to be free.

It's all part of a giant plan to eventually cash in like Microsoft does with their Live subscriptions. EA has failed miserably in the past (buying Pogo, Motor City Online, Sims Online), with the only bright spot I can think of being Ultima Online.

The entire idea makes sense, but they have to give people a reason to do it. A nice free trial to get people hooked sounds like a pretty fail-safe way. Eventually they will start charging after they get a nice subscriber base and run it through their bean counters.

I thought this was one of the big reasons EA didn't want to be a part of Live, because they wanted to charge their own fees for their games.

At the end of the day I don't mind. If they give me something I percieve as being a good value I will be happy to sign up.

Cheese is a hard thing. I think everyone cheeses a little bit... I mean shit, if I'm down by 7, in the 4th quarter, 3rd and 10, and have a play that I KNOW will get me 10 yards every time... how do I not call it in that situation?